Ouch. When did tyres get so expensive?
Discussion
HertsBiker said:
Ouch. When did tyres get so expensive?
They've got expensive? I swear the Conti's on my BMW 5 Series are within £10 a corner to the price I paid for them back when I first bought it 8-9 years ago.Just checked on blackcircles.com - yep. £115 for Conti Sport Contact 5. Could even push the boat out and get Pirelli P Zero's for the same price.
Just checked the new Merc. Little bit more expensive but only £10-15 per corner.
Seems a bargain to me. £115 for 25,000 miles of motoring. Unless you get a puncture every month tyres are not expensive.
I try and make sure my daily is always running a common size. Eg. the current steed runs 225/40R18. Last pair of Conti 5's were £115 they've now done 22k on the front and are just about down to 4mm. I don't consider them to be expensive really.
If needed to take some cost out I would go for Kumhos, Falkens or Uniroyal Rainsports/Experts.
If needed to take some cost out I would go for Kumhos, Falkens or Uniroyal Rainsports/Experts.
My BMW is on 16" wheels (not RFTs) and it was £86 per corner for the last set of Michelins (205/55/R16).
Big wheels are only good at one thing on a road car: looking decent. In every other respect they are worse.
Edited to add: and today they are £72.60 each inc vat, delivered. They are even * marked (ie. they are specific BMW-OEM spec Michelins).
Big wheels are only good at one thing on a road car: looking decent. In every other respect they are worse.
Edited to add: and today they are £72.60 each inc vat, delivered. They are even * marked (ie. they are specific BMW-OEM spec Michelins).
Edited by CraigyMc on Monday 21st April 21:00
The 18 inch wheels on the OH's Octavia are pretty awful to drive on in every respect. driverrob said:
Stop moaning.
or
It's all part of the running costs.
Lol.or
It's all part of the running costs.
Also, winter tyres cost more than summer ones in my experience. Funnily enough I was looking at some today for both my and the missus cars and the winter tyre price is circa 150% like-for-like versus the decent tyres our cars wear most of the year.
kambites said:
driverrob said:
kambites said:
Well if you must drive such a truly ridiculous vehicle. 
It's a purely functional passenger/dog/load carrier. 
my rears are circa £600 each, it's £2k for a full set.
CraigyMc said:
... £86 per corner for the last set of Michelins (205/55/R16)
That's about what I paid for PS3s in the same size.kambites said:
Dammit said:
As has been mentioned - anything smaller than 17" won't go over some peoples brakes, which is why they are on there.
Are there really that many "normal" cars which wont take 16 inch wheels? See Ford Mondeo manual p239 onwards: http://www.fordservicecontent.com/pubs/content/~WO... most (all?) models have the option of a 16" wheel.
Saving £50+ per tyre by switching to 215 or 205/55/16 it could be cheaper to buy a set of wheels and tyres in 16" than the tyres in 18".
CraigyMc said:
From 16" to 18", the circumference of the tread isn't much different on tyres that fit different wheels - there's just more sidewall on the tyre with the smaller wheel.
And significantly less overall unsprung weight, typically. The cheap 16 inch winter wheels and tyres I have for the Octavia weigh less than half as much as the OEM 18s with summer tyres on them. Try having a fuel hungry car that munches a set of 4 tyres in 10k miles, I'm not complaining because I knew all that before I bought it.
If you want expensive tyres try buying winter tyres when the first layer of snow is on the ground, seeing the price rocket on the web was a fascinating example of huge demand and a lack of supply in action.
If you want expensive tyres try buying winter tyres when the first layer of snow is on the ground, seeing the price rocket on the web was a fascinating example of huge demand and a lack of supply in action.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff